Alleged existence of
secret detention centres in Council of Europe member states:
statement by Dick Marty, rapporteur of the Committee on Legal
Affairs and Human Rights

Strasbourg, 13.12.2005 - At the meeting of the Parliamentary
Assembly of the Council of Europes (PACE) Committee on
Legal Affairs and Human Rights held in Paris today, the rapporteur
and Chair of the Committee, Dick Marty, reported on the key aspects
of his inquiry regarding the alleged existence of secret detention
centres in Council of Europe member states and flights which
may have transferred prisoners without any judicial involvement.

He said the following steps had been taken:

- Letters had been sent to the delegations to the PACE of
the two countries explicitly mentioned in the media, namely Poland
and Romania, and to the
Permanent Observer of the United States to the Council of Europe
(the Romanian Delegation replied on 17 November 2005, while the
Permanent Observer of the United States had sent him a copy of
a speech made by Ms Condoleezza Rice, US Secretary of State,
on 5 December 2005; to date, the Polish delegation had not replied).

- Letters requesting detailed information had been sent to
the Director General of Eurocontrol and the Director of the European
Union Satellite Centre (EUSC). In an interim reply, the Eurocontrol
Director had indicated that he first had to obtain the necessary
authorisation to make an exception to the usual data protection
rules, while the Deputy Director of the Satellite Centre had
indicated that supplying images of the kind requested by Mr Marty
was not part of the centres usual remit. The Committee
on Legal Affairs therefore called on the Council of the European
Union (and Mr Javier Solana, Secretary General of the Council
of the European Union and High Representative of the EU for the
CFSP) to intercede with the Satellite Centre so that progress
could be made here and urged the European Commission and the
member states of Eurocontrol to ensure that its executive body
grant authorisation for the transmission of the data requested.

- The rapporteur had made direct contacts with NGOs, in particular
Human Rights Watch, while PACE President René van der
Linden had also been in contact with a number of individuals
concerned (including an exchange of letters with Ms Rice); the
rapporteur had also exchanged information with investigative
journalists.

The rapporteur welcomed the opening by the Secretary General
of the Council of Europe of the procedure under Article 52 of
the European Convention on Human Rights for the purpose of obtaining
relevant information from all contracting parties to the convention.

He also expressed particular satisfaction at the willingness
of Mr Franco Frattini, Vice-President of the European Commission,
to co-operate closely with the Council of Europe on the matter.
In this connection, he welcomed the participation of a representative
of the European Commission and a member of the European Parliament
at todays meeting.

From a general point of view, the rapporteur underlined that
the information gathered to date reinforced the credibility of
the allegations concerning the
transfer and temporary detention of individuals, without any
judicial involvement, in European countries.

Legal proceedings in progress in certain countries seemed
to indicate that individuals had been abducted and transferred
to other countries without respect for any legal standards. It
had to be noted that the allegations had never been formally
denied by the United States. The rapporteur takes note of the
situation and deplores the fact that no information or explanations
had been provided on this point by Ms Rice during her visit to
Europe.

The rapporteur urges all member governments to commit themselves
fully to establishing the truth about flights over their territories
in recent years by
aeroplanes carrying individuals arrested and detained without
any judicial involvement. The Rapporteur intends to ask the leaders
of the parlementary
delegations to the Assembly to take initiatives within their
parliaments in order to obtain more precise information on this
matter, either by putting questions to their governments or by
proposing the setting up of committees of enquiry. In fact, the
delegations to the Parliamentary Assembly can make use of their
unique position to lobby national parliaments to shed light on
the matter. Mr Marty welcomes the fact that steps have already
been taken here by certain national parliaments.

While it was still too early to assert that there had been
any involvement or complicity of member states in illegal actions,
the seriousness of the allegations
and the consistency of the information gathered to date justified
the continuation of an in-depth inquiry. If the allegations proved
correct, the member states would stand accused of having seriously
breached their human rights obligations to the Council of Europe.

In this connection, the rapporteur underlined that, although
contacts between secret services were entirely normal and even
necessary in the fight against
terrorism, it was important for governments to exercise proper
supervision over them (see here the detailed principles set out
by the Assembly in Recommendation 1402 (1999) on control of internal
security services in Council of Europe member states).

Dick Marty stressed that the aim of the Parliamentary Assembly,
as the Council of Europes political/parliamentary organ,
was not to condemn individual countries or seek to impose penalties
but to defend the values shared by the member states and combat
terrorism resolutely and thoroughly, while, however, complying
with the fundamental principles of states founded on the rule
of law and the observance of human rights.

He announced that the Committee on Legal Affairs and Human
Rights will ask the Bureau of the Assembly to include in the
order of business of the next PACEs plenary session (23-27
January 2006) an urgent debate on the issue.

Statewatch does not
have a corporate view, nor does it seek to create one, the views
expressed are those of the author. Statewatch is not responsible
for the content of external websites and inclusion of a link
does not constitute an endorsement.